For decades, Joburg's western CBD – once home to the prestigious Johannesburg Stock Exchange, powerful mining houses and major bank headquarters – has been becoming a symbol of urban decay.

As businesses fled to the north, the inner city turned into an atmosphere of rundown buildings, littered streets and rising crime, with many residents and travelers even afraid to enter its once bustling center. Neighboring districts such as Hillbrow, Yeovil and Berea, once vibrant with culture and nightlife, had already slipped into the same deep dereliction.

But on the streets around Main, Fox and Ntemi Piliso streets, a new and unexpected story is taking shape.

Here, once amid decaying historic office blocks, thousands of young people now move in and out of classrooms, computer laboratories, playgrounds and newly restored buildings. This area of ​​the inner city is earning a new name–Education Town.

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And that vision is accelerating dramatically.

10 storey technical complex donated

In a major new development in March, South African tech pioneers and philanthropists David and Tracy Frankel have donated a 10-storey, 10,065 square meter building at 56 Main Street in Marshalltown to the Maharishi Invincibility Institute (MII).

The building will house the recently launched Maharishi NextUp Institute of Technology (MNIT) – a dedicated technology campus that aims to prepare thousands of underprivileged youth for high-demand digital careers.

This donation significantly expands MII's “Education Town” footprint and positions the western CBD as a potential tech-talent hub.

“This is more than a building; it's a promise to our youth that they will not be left behind in the AI ​​revolution,” said Dr. Teddy Blecher, CEO and co-founder of MII.

“For 20 years, we have proven that if you uncover talent in a young person, they can compete at the highest level.”

The new institute will focus on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation, Cyber ​​Security, Cloud Engineering, Data Science, Digital Marketing and Design as well as specialized financial and insurance academies developed with corporate partners facing critical skills shortages.

The model is demand-driven: Industry partners will co-design curriculum tailored to verified scarce skills, with direct job pathways into quality employment.

David and Tracy Frankel said they believe Johannesburg can become one of Africa's leading tech capitals.

“By providing this sustainable infrastructure and nurturing the set of cutting-edge programs that come here, we are confident that we will see trained youth become future technology leaders who will drive South Africa’s digital economy forward,” he said.

From “written” to reconstruction

At the center of the sweeping transformation is the Maharishi Invincibility Institute itself, whose multi-building expansion has transformed a once-neglected urban cluster into a growing university-style campus fueled by scholarships, job pathways, and the restoration of historic properties.

“Part of this area of ​​the CBD was considered ‘written off’,” says Blecher.

He describes the earlier decline as deeper.

He said, “Over 30 years the heart of the western CBD has been broken with mining houses leaving with other major companies and some banks moving to new business districts. For years, no one believed the area could come back.”

But Blecher argues that education clusters often form the basis of urban regeneration on a global scale.

“Around the world, it is education that brings cities back to life,” he says. “Look at Penn in Philadelphia, Columbia in Harlem, or Barcelona's @22 District. When you bring thousands of students into a neighborhood, everything changes – streets, businesses, safety, energy.”

The buildings that support Education Town

Over two decades, MII has acquired or acquired several major CBD buildings, many through philanthropic partnerships:

  • 9 Ntemi Piliso Street, donated by Anglo American in 2005
  • 45 Main Street, former Anglo headquarters, donated in 2023
  • 58 Marshall Street, donated by the Saville Foundation
  • 56 Main Street, which now houses MNIT, was donated by David and Tracy Frankel in 2026

Each building expands both the educational capacity and the physical footprint of regeneration.

Blecher says the goal is sustainable work, not just certification.

“Youth will build competence and a solid foundation to add value and leverage AI to create and transform businesses by solving business and social problems.”

MII's comprehensive model focuses on youth with little or no financial means.

“Our students come from places where opportunity doesn't exist – disadvantaged communities, families living on almost nothing,” Blecher says. “The fact that so many of them are now earning solid salaries, with some even becoming CEOs, shows what happens when you're on the same level.”